My car met with a accident(the car skid because of seepage of water and overturned) in March end and my brother called ABT and they promptly picked up the vehicle. I didn’t realize what was in store for me and that was the last time when I heard of promptness from them.
The first shocking thing was that they gave an estimate of Rs.63, 000/- for repairs. My god.It was exorbitant for a small accident. It created panic within us and we thought the damage was not that minor(Rem, there was no injury to anyone) . But we then contacted the surveyor and after inspection, the amount came down to Rs.39, 000/-. People can you just imagine? Its almost half the amount. If there were no insurance, we would have ended up losing around Rs.24, 000/-.
The entire estimation and approval process took around 3.5 weeks. During this process we lost our patience since it took a very long time and demanded that we take the vehicle back. know what? The parking charge for daily is Rs.250/- per day. And it was already 25 days and if at all we had to take our vehicle back, we had to pay 250* 25= Rs.6250/-. Now we are trapped. If we repair it there, we don’t need to pay this. Else we had to.pay this hefty sum. At last, we were forced to stick on with this dealer.
We found that since the estimation was on the higher side, the insurance ppl had to double check everything which took a long time. This could have been avoided had ABT given an estimate that was realistic(10% to 15% high) and not 50%.
Our ordeal again started from here and it became worse. After two weeks, we kept following up with them every day making umpteen calls. It was not even 10 days work, you gotto replace a glass and some tinkering work. Its not correct to point one single person, when the whole system is corrupt. You can’t blame the body when your brain is the defaulter.
The person whom we contacted would simply say something like some small work is to be done and lots of promises for the next day, four days, one week etc for delivery. And the customer care inside ABT is useless. The ball was in their court and we simply had to wait till the ball is passed on to us. This week I got really pissed off and just blasted the person in charge . One fine morning, he asked us to come the next day. Remember this is after following up with them for hundreds of times.
But before we went, going by our previous experience, we called up before leaving for the service centre, only to be informed that it still had some incomplete work. We could do nothing but only to blame our fate. Finally the next day evening we took delivery of the vehicle. First of all the interiors were not cleaned and the door window was very tight. And to my dismay my 10 CD changer was not found. Then my central locking system had gone and my remote locking didnot work.
I went the next day with these complaints. The window repair took some 45 minutes. They first said, the central locking could not be fixed, but when I raised my voice, they repaired it. We finally found the CD changer under the seat. I asked him to fix as it was before, but you know what he replied? " Sir, engallukku idhu matta theriyadhu".( meaning: We don’t know how to fix it). Then why the hell did they remove it. He said the electrician was on leave( A definite lie) etc etc. When I insisted he find someone, he brought one guy who said, " Sir, I will just fix the CD changer, but I don’t know to connect". What the hell is this? I smelt I was wasting time and it was already 11.30
AM. So rushed back to office.
And know what? When I took delivery of the car, the security didnot bother to ask for the gate pass. I could have built up a case, if it was required. Right from the manager to the security, the way they work is really pathetic and unprofessional.
The most funniest thing is I saw a poster in ABT which said " Don’t create Errors!. Don’t accept Errors!. Don’t pass Errors!. They also say they work on the principle of Japanese(5 S). In the errors part, they are the best in second(don’t accept errors) and the Japanese would hang themselves if they ever try to match the 5 "S" principle and ABT
Be warned. ABT is for sure a big Name and yes, its only in the name.